today on the ancestral findings podcast what were your ancestors doing in the 1800s
the decade of the 1800s was one of scientific innovation wonderful new
discoveries incredible culture and classical fashion all of these things would have been
known by most of our ancestors in this decade and maybe even personally experienced by them
these are the highlights of the 1800s that our ancestors would have probably known about
the 1800s was a century but the first time period from 1800 to 1810 was also a decade and it was
an important one in world history there were many things going on around the planet that would have
impacted your ancestors in some way knowing about these things can help you understand the world
your 1800s ancestors lived in better and thus understand them better as the people they were
these are some of the highlights from the decade that kicked off the 19th century and laid the
foundations for our modern world science this was a decade of scientific exploration
and experimentation particularly with the area of electricity plenty of experiments were being done
the prototype of the electric battery was invented in this decade for example the man who invented
it alessandro volta was given many honors and awards by napoleon for this including the legion
day on air steam transportation was another scientific area that was on the move in this
decade the world's first practical steamboat the charlotte dundas made her maiden voyage in 1803.
the first commercially successful steamboat the north river steamboat made its debut four
years after that in addition experiments with railroad technology were going on at the time
with a steam-operated road locomotive being built and driven down a road in england in 1801
this invention was followed up with the london steam carriage which debuted in 1803
and the prototype of the first steam-powered railway engine was built the following year
the world's first railway began operation in 1803 with the surrey iron railway in england
this first true railroad relied on horses drawing the cars down the rails
rather than engines though those came soon after culture there was plenty of culture going on
in the 1800s beethoven's symphony number one premiered in vienna in 1800 bach published the
music for his sonatas and partitas for solo violin in 1802. beethoven premiered other
symphonies in 1804 1805 and 1806 and completed writing two others in 1807 and 1808 fashion
europe was the center of fashion in this decade and the clothing it preferred became popular in
other locales such as north america casual styles finally fully supplanted the formal laces parawigs
brocade fabrics and wig powder of the previous century with women's clothing the empire
silhouette was the most popular type of dress the dresses of this style are closely associated today
with the clothing worn by women in period pieces based on jane austen novels the empire style dress
was closely fitted to the torso just under the bust then fell loosely and freely below that
soft colors and muslin fabrics were most popular for this type of dress
and the style itself was inspired by classical ancient greek dresses
the sleeves were usually puffed and short though long sleeves occasionally made an appearance
the world of men's fashions was inspired by dandism which is most popularly exemplified
in the person of beau brummel while older men kept the more formal wig and powder-based
fashions of the previous century younger men wore their hair with short curls and long sideburns and
dressed in clothing that was flatteringly cut and professionally tailored to each individual frame
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